Thursday, August 22, 2013

Syria Civil War Map: August 2013 (#11)

Syria's civil war has continued to rage through the summer, with small changes in territorial control and the area of fighting. Here's the updated conflict map, plus a summary of recent territorial changes and other developments.

Area of fighting and territorial control in Syria's civil war, updated for August 2013. Map by Evan Centanni, starting from this blank map by German Wikipedia user NordNordWest. License: CC BY-SA

Latest Fronts
Over the last two months since our previous Syria war map, fighting increased in three different corners of the country. In the northwest, rebels pushed farther into the coastal province of Latakia, a stronghold of President Bashar al-Assad and his native Alawite ethnic group. The rebel forces captured and briefly held several Alawite villages in the mountains before being pushed back to their base in Salma.

Meanwhile, fighting has heated up in the already contested Daraa province of southwestern Syria. Most notably, the rebels stormed the major town of Nawa in July, before losing it to the Syrian army again this month. In the country's opposite corner, the far northeastern province of Hasakah, Kurdish militias finally seized full control of Serekani (Arabic name: Ras al-Ayn) from religious extremist rebels who had been fighting for the town since last year. Apparently in response, the extremists have pushed farther into Kurdish territory elsewhere in the province.

Broad Trends
An expert quoted in a New York Times article last month estimated that Syria's rebel groups now control 60-70% of the country's land, but only 40% of the population, due to their greater success at controlling rural areas than holding major cities.

Meanwhile, the opposition remains as disorganized as ever, having proved unable to form a national-level interim government for the rebel-held areas. But the starkest sign of disunity between the various anti-Assad groups has been the breakout of major fighting between the secular-minded Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebels and the religious extremists of the Nusra Front and the ISIS ("Islamic State of Iraq and Syria"). The latter groups have emerged as the strongest rebel force in many areas of Syria, driving the FSA out of Raqqah city as part of their rise in power across the country's north and east.

Small Adjustments
This edition of the map returns to showing Ariha, a major town in Syria's northwestern province of Idlib whose status had been unclear for many months. Recent reports indicate that it is divided between rebel and government control. In central Syria, the war has now reached the previously peaceful city of Salamiya, which was shelled by rebel forces two weeks ago.